What Do High-End Graphics Cards Cost In Terms Of Electricity?
Many reviews analyze the minimum and maximum power consumption of a given graphics card. But just how much power does a high-end graphics card really need during the course of standard operation? This long-term test sheds some light on that question.
Maximum/Minimum Power Measurements
Determining the Comparable Values on the Test System
We started by measuring the maximum and minimum values for each graphics card in our test system, in order to improve our evaluation of the individual applications at the later stages.
Maximum Power Consumption
Minimum Power Consumption
Power Consumption for the Relevant Applications
We save this bunch of charts for the individual applications because, in most cases, the cards are on par and most differences are only marginal. The power consumption in games is significantly lower than the determined maximum energy consumption. But we want to state that none of the tested cards in the middle class were able to best any of their comparable competitors.
It was, however, interesting to see that both manufacturers put the cards at maximum clock frequencies when older 2D applications using GDI/GDI+ commands are used. This did not result in any positive effects on performance (we measured using our Tom2D tool), but indeed in negative effects on power consumption.
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Igor Wallossek wrote a wide variety of hardware articles for Tom's Hardware, with a strong focus on technical analysis and in-depth reviews. His contributions have spanned a broad spectrum of PC components, including GPUs, CPUs, workstations, and PC builds. His insightful articles provide readers with detailed knowledge to make informed decisions in the ever-evolving tech landscape